Dear Ministers,
Most of you know me, however some of you may not so let me introduce myself briefly before I begin with the blog at hand. My name is Dale, and I've been a member here for 7 years now. I have gotten well known among some of you for this or for that, and recently, the past two years, have been in overtime with in my ministry duties, :), so that is why I may not be familiar with some of you. I am hoping that as winter approaches things will slow down a bit, and I can once again catch up with some of you. I have missed some of you greatly. :) You know who you are! :) Ok so now lets get to the matter at hand, a warning to some ministers regarding something that recently happened to me about being contacted and hired to perform an upcoming and local wedding. In all my years this was new to me, as I have never heard anything from any other minister, regarding this.
A few weeks ago, my cell phone which I had my number listed on this site, as well as some other wedding officiant sites, was texted by a potential client. Not only was my phone texted, but I was directly emailed to my Officiant address. Everything appeared to be normal, as the conversation we exchanged was just about the same as every other one I have had over the years, and I have married hundreds of people. The man was out of Country, but the woman was local to me, within the same county. Being as featured as I am on some Officiant sites, it is not unusual from couples to travel from out of state or out of country to travel to me to have me presided over their ceremony. I didn't think twice about it until, about our second or third conversation when it came to them actually booking me. I was a bit suspicious that the groom, who was a "computer tech" for a company in "Belgium", did all the talking, and though he did provide to me his fiances name, and an address, time and date for their wedding location, I was not given the information that I asked for in order to contact the Bride. The Groom had also mentioned that he had a wedding planner, yet I was given no information for her as well, when I requested it. As a Wedding Officiant, it is important to stay in direct contact with the event planner in order for things to go as smoothly as possible, and so that when it comes to that actual moment, people aren't confused. Another thing which drew a red flag to me was that when it came to the payment, the Groom request to pay in a Cashier's check, which is not something that I normally do. I have taken travelers checks as payments before due to traveling often when I Officiate, but I didn't like that they were unable to pay debit/credit and or cash payment. He insisted that this was the only way he could pay. I was careful with what information I provided, and told him to go ahead and send me the cashiers check, and that when it came I would make sure it cleared so that he knew, and didn't have to worry. He sent it, it came, I opened it and noticed that even though the cashiers check looked legit, my name, the date, and the fee was written in by hand, which is also a huge flag. I also noticed that, though the man was supposed to be in "belguim" but the check had been written in Texas, with the company logo of an actual legit bank on it, and the check was actually sent from Virginia. WTH! I really didn't like this at all, so I took the check to the bank, and requested to speak to someone about it.
I explained to the woman at the bank the situation regarding this check, and showed her both the check and order slip, with the sender's name, address, and information on it, and she instantly was like "oh, wow, this is weird", "do things like this normally happen", "what kind of business are you providing for them", I answered her questions and explained to her that I am a Wedding Officiant, and Minister at a local church, and that this is not unusual for me to accept payment from someone out of State or out of Country, however this particular experience was different for me. She, called the bank who's information was on the check, and the teller at the bank looked into her computer to find that there was no information at all with that check being written in their system. The two ladies exchanged a brief conversation about the check, and my local bank lady ended up faxing the check over to the other bank for their records, so that both banks could forward both pieces of paper, the check, and the order slip to their fraud departments. I was also told to break all contact with the Groom, and I did. The Groom hasn't tried to write me since that day, when the check was investigated, so I assume they were aware of the fact they were being looked into. Names, numbers, addresses, credit card information used to purchase and send the cashiers check are all being looked at.
Scary to say the least, that some people out there have this much time on their hands to make things look and sound so realistic, however thankfully, I listened to my instincts on this because, I am not fully sure what could have happened had it cleared, or had been ran into my account but it was something I was not willing to risk. I am thankful that I do not do this for the purpose of money. The check was for a rather significant amount, far more than what we agreed upon, which was also a red flag considering there was no mention of a tip. So this is my tip for you wedding officiants, and ministers alike. DO NOT fall for this type of thing, as it was a new thing to my bank, as well as the bank who was supposed to have sent out the check. Please listen to your gut, and pay close attention to what you are doing, and who you are talking to over the internet regarding potential weddings.
I hope that none of you have been hit by this, but I wanted to share this information with you because as of today, I have not heard of this happening to anyone on this network yet, nor have I heard about it on any other network. Please be vigilant and keep good records as I do. It will save you a lot of pain and grief.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this. Blessings too you all!
Your Friend and Colleague
Dale
